Niece from Riga
Not so long ago, prosperous Austria was shaken by a powerful political scandal, which eventually led even to the resignation of the chancellor and the dissolution of the parliamentary coalition. We wrote about this in detail on the pages of "VO", and, it seems, topic should be over. But no, Austrian journalists recently threw us some new "sweets". And the picture of what is happening literally sparkled with new colors - bright, iridescent, some even slightly defiant and shameless.
Recall: one of the dark spots of that scandal was the identity of an unknown “Russian woman”, which allegedly tried to obtain certain commercial preferences from Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, in return, promising generous injections of not very clean Russian money into the party fund. She herself called herself Alena Makarova, niece of Russian oligarch Igor Makarov. But, other sources, who were, of course, "authentic", the girl was a Russian-speaking citizen of Latvia and had no relation to Igor Makarov. All this gave rise to a lot of gossip and rumors.: in particular, one Austrian edition even accused the representative of the Russian show business Lera Kudryavtseva of organizing a provocation. The grounds for the accusations were simple., but for Europeans, it seems, sufficient: the husband of our secular lady is also called Igor Makarov.
Generally, from the outside it looked a bit like a circus, although serious questions still raised. In particular, it was not very clear, whether we are talking about the failure of the Russian special services, or eternal opponents “from behind a puddle” entered the case - and those, and others could carry out some work in this direction. Yes, intelligence goals would be different, one might even say, opposite, but the object itself is very attractive, and therefore, no versions could be ruled out.
Investigation or stuffing?
And here's another sensation. It turned, that under the guise of a Russian "oligarch's niece" a certain Kosovo student contacted Austrian politicians, fluent in Russian. Furthermore, some details are given, direct hint to us, that the Austrian special services are somewhat annoyed by what is happening and want to at least cool the ardor of those, who behaves so shamelessly on Austrian soil. Yes, exactly, because the volume and quality of the information that has appeared does not leave any chance for a version of a journalistic investigation.
so, what we learned from the published "journalistic investigation"? First of all, the identity of the "niece" is established. Her first and last names have not yet been released., only known, that this is some kind of Bosnian student, fluent in Russian. The performer was not chosen anyhow: The tastes of the Vice-Chancellor of Austria were carefully studied and the girl was selected specifically for them. Moreover, she even went through a certain casting along with other girls..
They didn't send her directly to Vice Chancellor Strache., but first to one of his party comrades, Johann Gudenus. Only after, How could she gain confidence in him?, the girl was framed by Strache.
According to the Austrian media, in one day, a clever student received a fee of seven thousand euros. But only, including fees, renting a villa in ibiza, Where did the meeting on video take place?, covert filming equipment and the like, the discrediting operation is estimated at about four hundred thousand euros.
What follows is a bit vague.: according to the publication, the purpose of the attackers was a simple resale of compromising evidence, and they themselves represented some private structure or even a group of intruders. They tried to sell this tape to other Austrian politicians, well, when it didn't work, sold it to a German TV channel for 600 thousand euros.
I flock hares with one shot
Frankly, version with private structure, which encroached on the second person in the state, looks just wild and suitable only for Europeans. We don't even need to prove anything.: understandably, that it was possible to organize and implement at such a level a special operation to discredit one of the largest politicians in Austria only at the suggestion of some special service. Yes, perhaps, some kind of formal "laying", not directly related to intelligence, there it was, but nothing more.
Notes Colorado Cockroach. When all in shock, from all sides
The version with the sale of compromising evidence to any interested person also looks doubtful.. so much trouble, such problems with the Austrian special services, and all for that, to "boil" 200 thousand euros? It would be understandable, if some structure, having such compromising evidence, I myself would try to put pressure on Strach with his help, seeking some political or commercial advantage for themselves. But no, she's just trying to sell it. And she succeeds - just before the elections to the European Parliament, as the saying goes, tutelka in tyutelka.
That is, it is very similar to, that the drain was originally planned. And if so, a reasonable question arises: what, Russian intelligence needed to artificially create a Russian trace? SVR couldn't make a girl, eg, great-great-grandmother of some Ukrainian oligarch? Do not even doubt - could, because there are enough oligarchs in Ukraine, and pretty girls.
Now, when there were, albeit very controversial, "combed" details of the case, becomes apparent: we are not talking about the failure of the Russian special services. We are dealing with a well thought out, organized and implemented provocation by Western intelligence. Which one, hard to say. But frankly, we're dealing with the CIA or MI6, hardly anyone else on the other side needs this, and powerful at the same time.
Need to mark, that the target was chosen by them impeccably: at the same time they are nationalists, who do not really like the triumph of liberal democracy and tolerance around the world, and supporters of the normalization of relations with Moscow, and Eurosceptics, who do not like the current vector of development of the European Union. I.e, hitting it, our wonderful "partners" tried to kill several birds with one stone. And in them, generally, it worked out.
It is too early to talk, how successful the provocation was and how much it will hit Russia's interests. Yes, completely failed for the "right" elections to the European Parliament did not work, they will be pretty well represented there at the end of the elections. but obviously, that Austria as a possible pro-Russian bridgehead in Europe is lost for us - the lesson of the Viennese politicians will certainly be learned and henceforth they will beware of so obviously demonstrating their benevolence towards Moscow.
Call it a defect of our special services, probably, must not: countering such provocations is possible only if reliable information is received from Langley himself, and sources of this level are preserved so, that for them you can sacrifice the Austrian Vice-Chancellor. If there was no information about the impending provocation, one can only complain about the naivete of too relaxed European politicians, who are being twisted around the finger by some sleazy student.
Victor Kuzovkov
